1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a conveying apparatus which conveys a sheet material by using electrostatic adherence and to a recording apparatus to which the conveying apparatus is mounted.
2. Description of Related Art
As for an inkjet recording apparatus, it is conventionally known that a full-line recording head is used to make it possible to produce high-speed and high-quality recording. Where the recording sheet material is conveyed to that recording head, conductive electrodes are laid in a form of comb-like shape in a conveyance belt, and the comb-shaped conductive electrodes are charged in order to produce static electricity, thereby adhering the recording sheet to convey the sheet.
FIGS. 7(a) and 7(b) are cross-sectional illustrations of essential portions showing a structure of a voltage receiving portion in a comb-shaped electrode embedded in a conveyance belt of a conventional adhering conveying apparatus. The conveyance belt 51 has comb-shaped electrodes 52 consisting of a conductive metal built-in. Under the comb-shaped electrodes 52, a base layer 51a is formed, and above the comb-shaped electrodes 52, a surface layer 51b is formed.
The comb-shaped electrodes 52 are electrically connected to a voltage receiving portion 54 which can be contacted with a voltage supplying brush 53 for supplying voltage to the comb-shaped electrodes 52, and the upper surface 54a of the voltage receiving portion 54 is constructed on the same level as the level of the surface layer 51b of the conveyance belt 51.
However, according to the conventional apparatus mentioned above, when the ink droplets 55 sprayed from the inkjet recording head, not shown, are scattered over the voltage receiving portion 54 as illustrated in FIG. 7(b) or when ink droplets 55 scattered over the conveyance belt 51 are flowing and moving to the voltage receiving portion 54, the ink droplets 55 remain on the voltage receiving portion 54 without being removed from the upper surface 54a of the voltage receiving portion 54 and thereby raise problems to the supplying of voltage from the voltage supplying brush 53 or cause the voltage receiving portion 54 or the voltage supplying brush 53 to be corroded, because the upper surface 54a of the voltage receiving portion 54 is on the same level as the level of the surface layer 51b of the conveyance belt 51. Also, there was a problem where the voltage supplying brush 53 had stains or was worn out quickly due to the fact that the voltage supplying brush 53 was also in contact with the surface of the conveyance belt 51.
This invention is intended to solve the problem above. It is an object of the invention to provide a sheet adhering conveying apparatus and a recording apparatus in which ink droplets can be removed easily from the voltage receiving portion and in which stains and wearing on the voltage receiving portion can be reduced even when the ink droplets sprayed from the inkjet recording head are scattered on the voltage receiving portions of the comb-shaped electrodes or when the ink droplets scattered over the conveyance belt are flowing and moving over the voltage receiving portion.